March 31st, 2014 - March is over?!?

Hey Everyone!

Well... it looks like another month has already gone by! This week, like this month, has flown by! We've had some pretty awesome experiences this week, with a zone conference on Thursday, an awesome 5th Sunday combined lesson, some fantastic dinners, and awesome visits with people!

A couple quick highlights from my studies/zone conference this week first:

• Mosiah 8:12,18 - The scriptures are awesome!
• Mosiah 13:33-35
• D&C 78:7
• D&C 82:1
• D&C 82:8-10 -> commandments help us follow Jesus Christ!
• Mosiah 24:14-15, 3:19 -> Alma's people applied the atonement
• Alma 7:11-12
• Matthew 11:28-30
• Luke 14:28-30
• 2 Nephi 4:18-20
• John 18:6
• "Ye Are No More Strangers"
• "The Key To Spiritual Protection"

So, aside from having awesome studies and spiritual experiences this week, we had a pretty awesome time seeing some people! One such person was Dolores - an older lady who we met after visiting a member in the senior housing - who had a pretty neat life and had a neat perspective on life. We talked with her about the Book of Mormon a little bit, and she said she'd read it, so that was pretty neat. Another experience we had was with a sister who is getting divorced pretty soon and has been struggling and as we briefly talked to her the spirit prompted us to bear testimony that the Book of Mormon could help her, and it was super powerful.  

On Saturday was the general women's meeting, so you should all check it out if you have an hour or so to spare!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3408781210001

That's all I got for this week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

March 24th, 2014 - WOOHOOO!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

This week was a blast! Sooo much sweet stuff happened, and most importantly Brother Grant was baptized and confirmed! It was super spiritual, and I hope to never forget it! But anyway, like always, I don't have as much time as I'd like so I'll get right to talking about this week!

 We had an awesome visit with a less active couple this week where we watched "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Holland with them, and afterward the less active brother bore his testimony to us and said the closing prayer! We also had a sweet visit this week with a guy named Ken, so if y'all could pray for him that'd be swell!

Of particular highlights this week were my exchange in Midwest City, and of course everything to do with Brother Grant. Since I like going chronologically I'll start with the day in Midwest city! We had an awesome day, which started out with a super spiritual district meeting! We watched "Teaching with the Power and Authority of God" which was awesome! That day we met a couple cool families, and saw tons of miracles! One of which was this cool Kenyan lady we met after slowly working our way down into a neighborhood. We started out talking to a less active sister, and then after that went to talk to her neighbor who was out working on a bookshelf dealio, and then his neighbor pulled up so we went and talked to him, and then we saw a lady sitting outside with her kids playing who told us to go knock on her neighbor's door which was the Kenyan lady who was super awesome! So... basically I learned that it sometimes takes a little bit of work to get to the people you're actually in an area to see! I also learned that we shouldn't worry about what our friends say to missionaries when we send them over since that's really up to them. Later that night, we got to go out with an awesome brother in their ward and we had a couple noteworthy experiences. First, we met a christian rapper dude and he rapped out his testimony for us - which was sweet. Later that night we visited with a part member family, and he decided to start working toward April 12th as the day he wants to be baptized! It was super neat, and just an awesome day!

Then we come to Saturday... probably the sweetest day of my mission yet! Brother Grant's baptism was awesome! There were somewhere between 45 and 50 people there, which was cool, and the refreshments were super tasty. Then after that his family invited us to go have lunch with them at Cattlemen's... man they have some dang good steak there. Check out their WEBSITE if ya care to. It's apparently one of the most historic restaurants in Oklahoma ;) That afternoon we then got to go help Brother Grant work on his fence and take care of his horses, which is always a blast. That evening, we got to play some volleyball with some investigators and members and it was loads of fun.

The next day Brother Grant was confirmed, which was awesomely spiritual, and then I got the privilege of blessing the sacrament, so that was sweet. Church that day was pretty good overall, and we had dinner with an awesome family! They made a steak that rivalled Cattlemen's, so that was incredibly tasty. It was just a sweet day! But... like always... I'm out of time, so some quick scriptures for y'all:

• D&C 68:8-10
• D&C 71:5-6
• D&C 75:27
• Mosiah 1:7,11
• Mosiah 2:9, 22-24
• Mosiah 2:41
• Mosiah 3:17-19
• Mosiah 4:3, 9-12
• Mosiah 5:2,15
• Mosiah 7:19
• "Come, Join With Us"
• "Lift Where you Stand"

I hope y'all have a fantastic week, and that you check out those awesome talks by President Uchtdorf! I tried to make it convienent for ya and throw some links on, so check them out! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

March 17th, 2014 - St. Patrick's Day?!?

Hey Everyone!

Just so you know, today is apparently St. Patrick's day. So... I hope you're wearing green right now or someone might pinch you! Anyway, this week was pretty swell up here in Choctaw Oklahoma, with too many "highlights" for me to even begin covering all of them! So... I'll start at the beginning and see how far I can get with my time!

First off, last week we got to have dinner with an investigator who had previously cancelled 7 times worked out, so that was pretty fantastic! Then on Tuesday we had perhaps the best day of the week, since we got to go to the temple!!!!! It was dang awesome, especially since the last time I had gotten to goup there was at the end of July, so it's been a little while. Hopefully we'll get to start going a little more regularly... but we'll see!

Our other highlight of the week was Brother Grant, just all around. We had a good chat with him on Thursday about the baptismal interview questions, and then he had his interview on Friday - which he passed "With flying colors" according to Elder Ott- and then we had a sweet visit on Saturday with him where we watched a clip from 'The District' with him that showed someone's baptismal service. Then him and his wife were able to make it out to Church yesterday, which was fantastic! So, it was just a dang awesome week with Brother Grant, which was good since it pretty well solidified that he'll be baptized this Satuday!!! Keep praying for him, if you please!

Another highlight this week was on Satuday when there was a cub scout and Elders pinewood derby/rocket car race that was pretty exciting! There were a couple guys in the Elders' quorum who brought cars that weighed about 1.2 ounces... stuck a CO2 cartridge in them... and shot them off down the pinewood derby track... and they passed the finish line in about 30 miliseconds, so it was pretty dang impressive. That and the fact that there was food involved!

The last highlight for this week was transfer doctrine! We're all staying here in Choctaw - in fact there's only 3 people in the entire zone being transferred, so it was a pretty quiet deal this go around!

I'm out of time, but I had a few scriptures that I wanted to share with y'all first!

• Jacob 6:5,11,12
• Jacob 7:10,11
• Enos 1:3-5
• Jarom 1:4
• Omni 1:25-26
• D&C 62:3
• D&C 63:9-11
• D&C 64:25
• D&C 67:4-10
• D&C 68:4,25-29

And then I particularly enjoyed reading the talk "Do we Know What we Have" From this last conference - check it out!

Love y'all! Hope you have a fantastic week!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

March 10th, 2014 - It's over?!?

Hey Everyone!!

My birthday has already come and gone, and with it another week! Thanks again for all those who wished me a happy birthday! It was definitely a fantastic day, but since I don't have much time today this one will probably be pretty brief.

We had a ton of cool things happen this week! First off, we had an awesome zone training where we broke down our purpose, which is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end." We talked a ton about how we're here to help people and the first step to actually do that is building faith is Christ. Anyway, I would talk more about it... but like I said, short on time.

The next highlight of the week was, of course, my birthday! It was awesome, especially since I got cake the day before, the day of, and the day after. Any excuse to eat cake is always welcome! On my actual birthday my awesome companion made me some pancakes for breakfast, and we got to visit with quite a few people throughout the day before an awesome dinner/celebration (that only lasted an hour!) with some tasty cake and ice cream. The people here must be OU fans or something since I got an OU hackeysack, and an OU keychain dealio ;) But, it was still a fantastic birthday!

Friday was awesome since I got to go on an exchange and work with Elder Staheli for the day in Del City! It was neat to be in the city for once, and get to see what it's like just a little bit to work there. We had some awesome miracles, and y'all should definitely pray for Carol. We also met a guy named Jack, and he's pretty neat. We had a good visit with him, and we'll see what happens later on!

Saturdays are always a blast here, and this one was no exception! We had a fantastic visit with Brother Grant, and he's wanting to get baptized on the 22nd of this month! Since his wife is already a member, and he's already had all the lessons, even though he's not been to church all the required times here in Choctaw, our awesome Mission President gave us permission to baptize him early (1 church time short), since that's when his family will be in town. Pray for Brother Grant! This week we watched a couple neat videos that y'all could check out if you wanted to:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

It'll take about half an hour to watch all those, but they're pretty awesome! That night we had a couple investigators at volleyball, which was super fun even though not very many people showed up :( But, it was still an awesome end to the day!

Some quick study highlights from this week before I get going for y'all will follow!

• Jacob 4... just the whole chapter... but I liked verses 6-7, and 11-13 especially
• Jacob 2:21
• 2 Nephi 33:6, 10-11, 14
• 2 Nephi 32: 4
• 2 Nephi 31: 2-3, 13, 17
• 2 Nephi 29: 6-9
• Acts 20:20-21
• Deuteronomy 8:1-3
• Luke 17:10
• John 13:14
• Romans 12:3
• D&C 50:14-18, 22
• D&c 56:18
• D&C 58:21,26-31
• D&C 59:3-4
• D&C 59:14, 21, 23

That's all I got for this week! Love y'all!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson

March 3rd, 2014 - MARCH!!!!

Hey Everyone!

My favorite month is here, and it's started off super well! We had a nice couple inches of snow yesterday, which sadly resulted in church being cancelled.... but aside from that it's been awesome! We've had some awesome lessons, met some incredible people, and had a ton of tasty food, so I'm not really having much to complain about.

First on my highlights reel for this week was our visit with Brother Grant! He's doing awesome, and since it was cold outside we were able to have a little longer of a lesson. It was sweet! The member we had out bore some powerful testimony of tithing, and it was intense to see the spirit work on him throughout from the beginning where he had a few issues with tithing to the end where he was a lot more accepting and willing to do it. Then there's the fact that he's going to work to be baptized on the 29th of... March! Instead of the 10th of May, so that was just plain awesome to hear. Y'all should totally keep them in your prayers if you could!

Another highlight from this week has been my studies! I've just loved them, so I hope you guys enjoy some of the scriptures that struck me whilest studying this week:

• Romans 5:3-5
• Romans 6:16, 23
• 2 Nephi 21:2-4
• 2 Nephi 22;2
• 2 Nephi 25:20
• 2 Nephi 25: 23
• 2 Nephi 25:28
• 2 Nephi 26:24-28
• 2 Nephi 26:33
• 2 Nephi 28:3-6
• 2 Nephi 28: 28
• D&C 42:6-7
• D&C 42:12,14
• D&C 42: 44-44
• D&C 42:61
• D&C 43:15-16
• D&C 49:2
• D&C 49:26-27

A few thoughts related to a couple of those I'll throw here that I wanted to share!
First is D&C 42:61, which starts off "If thou shalt ask..." and I loved how it showed the principle that asking is the first step towards joy and eternal life, as we gain more knowledge and receive more revelation.

In another study I came across D&C 49:2, which talks about the shakers wanting to know the truth in part, but not all. It just struck me how often we're content only knowing part of what is really available to us.

In Romans 5:3-5, Paul shows us a chain, that leads to hope which I thought particularly interesting. He says: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.I found it interesting how he starts off with tribulations leading to patience, and then the fact that experiences give us hope as we see things work out and how the Lord truly knows the details of our lives.

Lastly, in 2 Nephi 28:3-6, Nephi tells us what sorts of things different churches will do and teach and I just thought it was interesting to see how that truly has come to pass.

Another highlight of this awesome week was on Tuesday when we were out and about with a member in the afternoon and ended up hitting the end of our plans an hour early... but a few kids invited us to play a little basketball with them, and it was just awesome. We were able to talk to them about what missionaries do, and a little about our church. Hopefully we'll get to play with them again sometime and then get them and their families taking the lessons, but we'll see what happens with that.

Sadly, I don't have as much time as I would like so that's all the highlights you guys get to hear about :( I hope y'all have an awesome week! Oh! Here's a picture of Elder Beus and I, since we've neglected to really take any pictures since I got here... That's not our apartment, just so you know.

Alright... that's all I have time for this week! Love y'all! Have a fantastic week!

'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson